Up up and away....

In my beautiful balloon!

Goodness me, I haven't blogged in a wee while!

I have no excuse really - considering I have even downloaded the fabulously easy to use blogger app for my iPhone! (Using it right now to be frank!)

So, in my glass-box studio this week, I've been madly crafting away with wood. Glorious wood!

Hot air balloons are a bit on my mind just now! And I've just been told that it's Hot Air Balloons over Wanganui coming up too! Oh how astute I am!

Anyway - regathering my thoughts here - oh that's right - as I was saying, hot air balloons: when you mix great wood with fab papers and a jolly good laser cutter - your dreams and ideas hit the mark dead on! I love the end result...

Aren't they just cute! My wee studio smells so mighty fine: wood - it hits me in the nose like the smell of dried cloves. Remember back all those years ago when you were at Kindy : when you would make Xmas tree decorations by poking as many dried cloves into an orange as you could?

Then, after it dried, it smelled divine. That's what working with wood does for me - takes me back in time with a hiss and a roar.

All I can advise is to think about sustainability in your work: all of this wood in my work is sustainable. I also recycle paper as much as I can - using even gridded Maths papers in my work - as well as good purchased papers.

We are surrounded by stack loads of old wood here in Christchurch: heart Rimu, Oak, Kauri, Matai - the list goes on. Old homes are bowled over and although the forest sized loads of native timbers are being picked through, much of it is still being dumped. 

Some designers and furniture makers in the City are picking through the piles, but when a demo and rebuild is on a tight schedule, there's only so much wood one can save.

In a nutshell: wood is beautiful. Save as much as you can, and wear it forever as that special piece of Jewellery ! Xx

Block coloured buntings and other daily tricks

Yesterday afternoon, I came home with my bag of plain coloured card and other craft supplies, and make a few buntings for customers.

I also made another one as a test:

This necklace has plain colour textured paper on it instead of my usual busy patterns mixed in with neons.

So what do you think?

It reminds me of a gelato cone in the middle of summer. The grey pieces simply sharpen it all up (and trust me, it looks far better in the flesh).

You can also buy in from my Facebook page or from my FELT store.

I had such a spot in the sunshine and view of the backyard from my studio yesterday, I decided to keep pottering along and making the 5 bunting orders I received overnight. I even cooked up some new ideas for necklaces (in the design stage now).
All in all, a rather productive day!